Joaquin Phoenix's Quotes

When I decide to do something, I stick with it, total commitment.

When I go out with the ladies, I don't force them to pronounce my name. I tell them I like to go by the nickname of Kitten.

When I look back I can't believe how my parents managed, but the cliche is true. We didn't have money, but we were rich in so many other ways.

Whether you think a film will affect society or it's plain entertainment, it's all excellent, it's all noble.

With public figures involved in a relationship it seems that there is a machine behind their love so oftentimes.

You can take that 'I'm an artiste' stuff to the wrong extreme, too.

You see so many earnest characters in movies all the time, everyone has a purpose.

You're always thinking, What's the next move - the career, the money.

I have this horrible sense of humor where I think discomfort is funny - partly because I experience discomfort a lot, and it's a way of laughing at it and getting a release.

I never prepare. I think that's completely overrated. It's a very simple job. All you have to do is hit this bright mark, stand in the right spot and say the line. So I don't really believe in preparation.

In every film, whether it's a fictional character or not, you create an idea of the character and for me I always do a bad impersonation to start with.

Going out on a stage publicly and not knowing how people are going to react to you - once I experienced that, it made me feel much more comfortable about going into a scene.

I becan acting when River was doing this TV series and they needed two kids for the show, so they got me and my little sister, Summer, to do it. After that I did some really weird guest spots with orangutans and stuff.

I don't really make movies because I want to see my face on a billboard or because I want to get good reviews or have a big box office. That doesn't really matter to me at all.

I feel an obligation to set the record straight. Actors that say they're affected by something, that it changes their life, that they take it home with them, they're just trying to get nominated for an Oscar!

I feel like everything you learn as an actor growing up is wrong. You're supposed to hit your mark, find your light and know your lines. Those are all things that just make things wooden, dull and boring.

I mean, I don't like sitting at a table with seven or eight people asking me questions and kind of listening to what I'm doing - scrutinizing my thoughts and things like that. I just don't like it. I can't understand how anyone would.

I think the day that I become comfortable doing interviews and going on talk shows is the day that I don't know what it is to be a human being anymore.

I've always loved hip-hop, since I was a kid, that's the music that I loved. I think everyone of our generation kind of fantasized about hip-hop in some ways.

I've always loved music, but I never really played anything. After 'Walk the Line' and learning to play guitar, and having that sense of performing, I think that certainly opened the door for me, for music.

If you walk into a room and one hundred people say, 'You are a lovely, beautiful person', who isn't going to be affected by that? But you have to tell yourself not to value that. You have to tell yourself - or at least I do - to not become accustomed to hearing applause in any way, because I think that's dangerous.

In most films - especially in regards to the protagonist - really from the get-go they set up some scenario that endears that character to the audience. Or imbues him with some nobility or heroism or something.

Sometimes a character is really based on research that you do. Other times it's just based on your imagination or perhaps your conversation with the director. Or sometimes all of the above. It depends on the movie and character.

There are kids who get on a BMX bike when they're eight years old and they go, 'Whoa, this is incredible,' and grow up to do extreme sports. It's the same for me with acting.

I had a really wonderful upbringing. We were a tight family. It was wonderful to grow up with so many siblings. We were all just a year or two apart, and we were always so supportive of each other. I learned everything from my older brother and sister and taught it to my younger sisters.

I don't know why I always get to play these guys who have few redeeming features. But don't knock it. Villains are much more fun.

I enjoy humour more than anything, I don't really sit around banging my head and crying all the time.

I once told a journalist that girls call me 'Kitten,' but I couldn't have been more sarcastic, and no matter how many times I've said that it was a joke, it still doesn't go away.

It's hard for me to put my feelings into words.

I don't walk around like I'm a movie star because I don't think of myself as a movie star. People usually don't even notice me.

I didn't know much about him, and I wasn't a big country music fan. I listened to the Beatles and David Bowie, so I didn't know a lot about him.

Acting is real important to me. I love it, and it's something I care about.

Every movie soaks into you for a certain amount of time.

For me, I guess I'm the acting equivalent of somebody that jumps off buildings and parachutes.

For me, I'd rather have an intense experience than not.

I always have the fear that, if I don't commit 100 percent to my work, then it's gonna suffer.

I don't bring my life into a character at all.

I don't know a single person in life that doesn't have conflict.

I don't spend most of my life in front of the media.

I don't think one should be comfortable standing on a stage with people applauding and laughing at every stupid thing you say.

I guess I had what you could call an unconventional upbringing.

I guess my experience with some stuff is kind of abstract.

I just I don't feel challenged by acting anymore. I don't enjoy the process anymore.

I know if I'm lost in the moment or not.

I love having a master. I have no problem serving my director. That's my job. I want to make them happy.

I loved hip-hop. The first stuff I heard was Public Enemy, and I couldn't believe it. It was amazing, and I've always loved hip-hop.

I still think that movies are amazing; I respect actors and directors.

I wish I had fair justification for not being as informed as I should be, but I don't.

I would try and sing along with bands that I like but it sounded so atrocious that I couldn't.